Lore and Perculia have teamed up to give an in-depth preview of the scenarios available for testing. This first batch of scenarios centers around the Brewmasters--a group of Pandaren who take their craft very seriously and end up in the strangest predicaments on their quests for the perfect ingredients.

Currently, you must be level 90 with a minimum ilvl of 425 to queue for scenarios. You can queue up for them using the dungeon finder, either for random or specific ones.

Summary of A Brewing Storm

Up on Thunderpaw Peak, you have to help Blanche Boomer finish making her famous brew. It can only be completed in the rain, which unfortunately is the perfect weather for enraged Saurok, a race of ancient lizards created by the Mogu solely for the purpose of fighting. This scenario is very fast, with three short phases and a NPC that helps tank and heal.

Summary

Stage 1You'll start the encounter by extinguishing kegs on fire and killing waves of Saurok as Blanche completes the brewing process over the course of several minutes. Blanche helps you out by dropping healing pools.

Stage 2In the next phase, you'll help escort Blanche down the road towards the brewery. More waves of Viletongue adds appear, punctuated by Blanche's humorous comments.

Phase 3For the last phase, your group will save Thunderpaw Refuge. The Saurok have taken over the brewery and after defeating waves of adds, Borokhula the Destroyer himself appears. Players are able to channel electricity to neutralize his adds, and besides dodging some earth spikes, he's a fairly straightforward fight.

After defeating him, Blanche's brew is complete and the first round of drinks are on her!

Screenshots

Achievements

The Perfect Pour: Brew the Boomer Brew without anyone in your party being hit by Lightning during A Brewing Storm.

Party of Six: Finish A Brewing Storm with all six Thunderpaw Guardians still alive.

Don't Shake the Keg: Defeat Borokhula the Destroyer in A Brewing Storm without getting hit by his Swamp Smash.

There have been so many spell animation changes in Mists of Pandaria so far. We already touched on the monk class and also the druid class changes, but in our latest videos, Krelumian covers other classes. This includes the warlocks who have some pretty huge changes--so many that we've broken it down in its own separate video!

Hit the break to see the details of every change broken down with images.

We got to check out two wings of Scarlet Monastery--formerly four instances, SM is now reduced down to two. This instance has been entirely retooled: bosses are redesigned and renamed, large areas are removed, sides commonly known as the Library and the Armory were merged to become the Scarlet Halls while the Graveyard and Cathedral became the Scarlet Cathedral.

In short, a lot of HUGE changes! We've also updated this post because our instance was bugged last time.

Watch the video for our complete run through--my character with Krelumian narrating--or click the tabs to see a detailed breakdown on what the changes are.

Video

The Scarlet Crusade is having a war and they're losing it pretty badly in the remnants of what many players referred to as the Graveyard side. Undead pour in and corpses burn in large, decaying piles throughout the somber scene. The area has also been pruned of Interrogator Vishas and his torture scene as well as trash mobs. This is now part of Scarlet Cathedral. It transitions seamlessly into where the Cathedral area was. High Inquisitor Whitemane is there and the encounter is similar to what it was before, with the exception that Scarlet Commander Mograine is replaced by General Durand.

Meanwhile, the Library side is gone and has instead merged with the Scarlet Armory. It is now called the Scarlet Halls. Chained mastiffs attack you and archers wait at the ready to snipe you. You have to pick up a practice target and use it as a shield, deflecting the wave of arrows that follow. Both bosses Houndmaster Loksey and Herod have been replaced with newer NPCs that keep their looks but are different characters.

After you make it through the Armory portion, instead of ending, it continues on to what was the end of the Library. Mobs drop gold piles you can loot for extra gold. At the end, you fight Flameweaver Koegler--a replacement for Arcanist Doan.

What's Changed--And What Hasn't

The levels remain the same for normal mode

There is a level 90 heroic version

Largely unfinished, no voice acting for the bosses or loot tables

Instead of four separate areas, it's two, and they were merged together

The Crusade's fiercest warriors, those who have held their ground and fought to defend the monastery throughout these dark times, are rapidly preparing an army within the Scarlet Halls. These soldiers are bound by their hatred of the unliving, and they are willing to sacrifice everything for their order's righteous cause.

Houndmaster Braun

The quickest and surest way to detect the undead is by the scent of rot they carry, and even the most veteran soldier cannot match the olfactory sense of a hound. Houndmaster Braun has bred and trained a savage pack of canines to aid the crusaders in hunting down their foes--living and undead.

Piercing Throw: Houndmaster Braun throws one of his knives at a random enemy, inflicting 95000 to 105000 Physical damage and applying Bloody Mess to all enemies in the knife's path.

Death Blossom: Houndmaster Braun leaps onto a random enemy and whirls around, releasing a spray of knives at all targets within 5 yards, inflicting 95000 to 105000 Physical damage and applying Bloody Mess to the target and any of its nearby allies.

Bloody Mess: Houndmaster Braun's knife attacks inflict 14250 to 15750 damage to an enemy every 2 sec. for 10 sec. This effect stacks.Braun applies this effect to any target hit by Piercing Throw or Death Blossom.

Obedient Hound: Trained by Houndmaster Braun, this large mastiff follows any order given to it by his master.

Bloody Rage: At 50% remaining health and unable to control his dogs, Houndmaster Braun begins to attack 50% faster and inflicts 25% more damage.

Flameweaver Koegler

Flameweaver Koegler trains the Scarlet Crusade's more magically minded adepts in the subtle applications of the arcane. Fire is his specialty, and he has used his skills to burn the order's historical tomes, erasing the Crusade's past failures. Apart from books, Koegler's flames have rendered many--undead, students, and trespassers alike--into piles of smoking ash.

Book Burner: Flameweaver Kogler tries to light the books ablaze containing the Scarlet Crusade's past. Players may intercept the fiery bolt, which inflicts 234000 to 246000 Fire damage. If Koegler's attack succesfully hits the books, they begin to burn.

Greater Dragon's Breath: Koegler unleashes a sweeping series of attacks that mimic the deadly fire breath of a Dragon. The Breath inflicts 243750 to 256250 Fire damage, an additional 48750 to 51250 Fire damage every 1 sec., and confuses the target for 5 sec.

Quickened Mind: Flameweaver Koegler casts this preparatory spell, making his next three spells cast nearly instantly.

Pyroblast: Flameweaver Koegler casts a huge Pyroblast at his current target, inflicting 195000 to 205000 Fire damage, then an additional 40000 Fire damage every 1 sec for 8 sec.

The Crusade's fanatical leaders direct their followers from the Scarlet Cathedral, at the heart of the monastery grounds. This heavily guarded location functions as the order's headquarters, and some of the most zealous and intolerant crusaders roam the halls of this once-hallowed place.

Thalnos the Soulrender

Thalnos earned repute in the Scarlet Crusade for the brutal torture methods he used to "purify" new recruits. Ultimately, the sadistic mage contracted the plague of undeath and arose as a fearsome skeletal being. The vengeful Thalnos now prowls the monastery's graveyard, commanding apparitions and zombified creatures to attack anyone who trespasses on his unholy domain.

Fallen Crusader: The bodies of Fallen Crusaders remain after being defeated.

Mind Rot: The melee attacks of a Fallen Crusader can inflict Mind Rot on their current target. The Mind Rot inflicts 975 to 1025 Shadow damage every 2 sec for 6 sec. This effect stacks.

Spirit Gale: Thalnos the Soulrender launches a spirit at the location of his current target. When the spirit reaches its target, a Spirit Gale forms. The Gale immediately inflicts 121875 to 128125 Shadow damage to players within 2 yards, then inflicts 43875 to 46125 Shadow damage every 1 sec. to enemies standing inside the effect.

Evict Soul: Thalnos the Soulrender rips the soul from a random player, inflicting 58500 to 61500 Shadow damage every 1 sec for 6 sec.Every time Evict Soul inflicts damage it creates an Evicted Soul of the target. Evicted Souls attack the closest friend of their target.

Evicted Soul: The Evicted Soul's attacks inflict 14625 to 15375 Shadow damage to enemies within 6 yards of his target.

Brother Korloff

Brother Korloff first learned of the monk's deadly arts from pandaren ambassadors as they journeyed through Azeroth. When the crusader demonstrated this martial style to his superiors, they unanimously ordered Korloff to train an entire generation of initiates in the ways of the monk.

Blazing Fists: Brother Korloff begins to unleash a flurry of fiery blows, inflicting 40% of his normal melee damage as Fire damage to targets in front of him every 1 sec. for 6 sec.

Firestorm Kick: Brother Korloff flies towards a random player and performs a Firestorm Kick, inflicting 76000 to 84000 Fire damage to all players within 7 yards.

Rising Flame: Whenever Brother Korloff loses 10% of his total health, a Rising Flame burns within him and he inflicts 10% additional Fire damage. This effect stacks.

High Inquisitor Whitemane

At a young age, Sally Whitemane witnessed her family succumb to the horrific plague of undeath as they were traveling through northern Lordaeron. She was then forced to destroy her parents and siblings when they rose as mindless Scourge minions, leaving her racked by guilt and rage. Ever since that day, the fearsome priestess has found fulfillment and pleasure in only one thing: the destruction of undead.

Commander Durand:The new military commander of the Scarlet Crusade attacks the players with a series of lightning quick strikes.

Flash of Steel: Commander Durand rapidly shifts around the battlefield, attacking random players and inflicting 57000 to 63000 Physical damage every time he strikes.

Dashing Strike: Commander Durand quickly dashes through his enemies to a location, inflicting 57000 to 63000 Physical damage to every enemy in his path.

High Inquisitor Whitemane:The High Inquisitor of the Scarlet Crusade comes to the aid of Commander Durand when he falls, resurrecting him to fight at her side.

Power Word: Shield: High Inquisitor Whitemane wraps an ally in a magical shield that absorbs 75000 damage.

We hopped on the PTR and ran all the redone instances that we could this morning. These are very much works in progress as instances, but they looked really cool and had some fairly significant changes.

A common theme I noticed in pretty much every instance was a desire for there to be useable items that made the 5-mans more dynamic. In RFC, players were charged with rescuing orcs from sticky situations--from dangling off a ledge to being devoured by an elemental hound. Meanwhile, in SM, certain mobs would drop explosives which players could detonate and there was also the option to use archery targets as shields from a barrage of flaming arrows. Cool stuff, can't wait to see it more developed--and to see what it means for level 90 5-mans!

Ragefire Chasm

Overview

Those poor Troggs. What did they do to anyone? I mean, besides killing and maiming low level Horde players? In short, Ragefire Chasm is redone. Trogg corpses litter the molten floors of the instance--they aren't the enemies anymore. Instead it's a new cult, former members of the Horde called the Dark Shaman. Garrosh has ordered you to clear out Ragefire before they can become another Twilight's Hammer and it's a pretty obvious lore point calling to Garrosh's eventual overthrow.

He was, after all, revealed to be the final "boss" of Mists of Pandaria.

While we're still waiting for some of the news coming on March 19th (and without breaking NDA, let's just say there's a lot of big things coming), the screenshots of the day section keeps expanding--we've already seen one of these from that Cataclysm postmortem a while back, but it's one gorgeous monastery.

Community and World of Warcraft

This isn't the first nor the last time we will see a discussion about community and the sense of community, I'm sure, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's important though that we keep these discussions constructive however.I'm going to channel some Ghostcrawler for you this morning and see if we can open up the discussion a bit.

/puts on her hat and robe

Keeping a sense of community while still meeting the needs of the community as a whole is a huge challenge for us. We fundamentally believe that having a sense of community is an important thing for the long-term health of the game. However, we don’t think the way to foster that community is to force players to spam global channels trying to find groups. Dungeon Finder and Raid Finder have enabled a lot more players to run dungeons and raids regularly and we’d be very reluctant to ever go back to a world without them.

The trick for us is trying to grow a stronger sense of community despite having global queuing features that will likely pair you with strangers you may never play with again. We believe players generally have more fun and stick with the game longer when they play with friends. The queue systems are a substitute for when you don’t have enough friends (or even enough friends online at the moment) to participate in that content. We aren’t trying to, and wouldn’t want to, turn WoW into a solo game. These systems are merely to facilitate a need to connect more easily with players interested in tackling this content.

Warrior Banners

Daxxari

We made it a banner for a couple of reasons.

We thought the demoralizing and mocking mechanics were more useful if the warrior could place them somewhere else. For example, imagine a warrior (and not just a tank) using the Mocking Banner to direct incoming adds over to where the tank is currently standing. Now Skull Banner doesn’t strictly have to be a banner, since the warrior will probably want to benefit from it most of the time, but we left it as a banner for one pretty cool reason: since the banner is an ally, you can Intervene to it (!). That opens up some cool gameplay options.

Ultimately, we wanted to try and expand the design potential for warriors a bit. Increasingly, it seemed that any new ability had to be another type of movement, a weapon strike, or shout, or it wouldn’t feel like a warrior ability. We wanted to try something new, and we're hoping that warriors will give them a shot once we’re in beta and let us know how it feels.

Tanks in PvP

Daxxari

Anyway, we don't have a problem with players choosing to PvP as tank specs, but if they do, then we want them to be effective because of their defensive and control abilities, not because of their damage-dealing potential. It's intentional that, overall, tanks have to sacrifice some DPS in order to make up for their other strengths.

For comparison's sake, we don't think it would be cool if healing specs did as much or more damage than DPS specs in PvP, and the same is true for tanks. In Battlegrounds, tanks often do have a role, whether it’s running flags, defending a node or tanking NPCs. It is much harder to provide tanks a role in Arenas since the strategy ultimately revolves around focusing down enemy players. Nobody wants to try to focus down a tank, and tanks typically can’t contribute as much to focusing down enemy targets.

I'm not so much for debates, because design isn't about rhetorical prowess. It's about making the game the best it can be for all players, not simply those who can make a compelling case on the forums. Because of how personal (even emotional) the experience of playing a character is, sometimes it's hard to see over the fence into someone else's yard. We have to keep an eye on the whole neighborhood.